“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” Is A Bizarre But Intriguing Love Story

If you’re looking for a charming, conventional rom-com starring two of Hollywood’s biggest stars right now, “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is not the movie for you. Despite ticking all the right boxes – the awkward meet-cute, the avoidable falling out, and the inevitable soaring declaration of love – there’s so much more going on here.

Anyone familiar with director Kogonada’s previous work (2017’s “Columbus” and 2021’s “After Yang”) will recognize his usual blend of devastating realism and focus on human connection, but beyond that is a frankly bizarre film about rejecting destiny and carving your own path, complete with time travel, magic doors, exploding cars and at least one huge musical number.

It doesn’t start on a high note. The first 20 minutes are off-putting and stilted, suggesting no reason to get behind our two lead characters, played by Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie. Farrell’s character, David, is awkward and antisocial, seemingly allergic to small talk and trapped in a spiral of missed opportunities and regret. Robbie’s character, Sarah, on the other hand, exhibits all the expected traits of the historic “pixie dream girl” trope, although it becomes apparent that this is more of a façade than a true personality.

The pair have very little in common, and it takes a supernatural force to ultimately bring them together. For a film about rejecting the expected path and breaking away from your predetermined destiny, it’s a fun twist.

The issue is that throughout the entire length of the movie, things don’t ever seem to change. Despite David and Sarah’s adventures together, there’s never any real chemistry between them. We learn so much about each person individually, and when it’s focused on just one or the other, the movie is firing on all cylinders, but when focusing on the couple, the story never really blossoms.

While not the main focus, there’s a clear intent for the movie to be experienced as a romantic comedy, but when the leading couple never develop further than feeling like friends, that final moment just falls a bit flat. This is Kogonada’s first feature film as a director to not credit him as writer and editor as well, and never is that more evident than this awkward introduction.

It’s an undeniably messy movie. While the main emotional crux of the movie lies in a grounded series of personal revelations, the framing leans fully into the absurd. It’s hard to remain fully engaged in Farrell coming to terms with his father’s influence in his own life when it’s presented via the medium of magic doors, supplied by a Bugs Bunny-esque Phoebe Waller-Bridge doing an intentionally terrible German accent. Whether the film wants to bring you to tears or render you speechless with laughter seems unclear, especially when the film itself is rarely that funny, but the inconsistency throughout is what really brings it down.

Because it can be fantastic at times. When the movie slows down, puts the fantasy to one side and really narrows in on tackling that universal fear of the past and the struggle to move forward despite it, it’s truly excellent. The scene in a café, in which both David and Sarah are forced to face the worst days of their lives and the decisions that led them there, is an easy high point of the movie, as well as the director’s career so far. Both characters learning to forgive themselves and understand their parents might feel a little disjointed from the core narrative, but as discrete moments, they’re unmatched.

It's a film that lives and dies by the quality of its dialogue, and while it does frontload itself with some of the worst it has to offer, it makes sure to cap things off on a high note.

It's a great looking movie too. Kogonada has never been a slouch when it comes to breathtaking visuals, and “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” is no exception – combining this quiet, understated aesthetic with a number of gorgeous sunsets and wide vistas. Despite being unapologetically fantastical, it’s light on special effects, about as flashy and technical as something like “About Time,” but it’s anything but dull.

When it does commit to something a bit more “Avatar,” a single scene around the midpoint that sees our two leads gazing down at the Earth below them, it hits like a bolt of lightning. Scenes walking through a deserted museum at night are given just as much reverence as a fully choreographed musical number, and at no point does it feel like any other movie seen before.

If there’s one thing that can be said about “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” it’s that it’s unique. It’s not going to be everyone’s thing, and even the people who love it will take issue with some elements, but to suggest it’s derivative or unimaginative is simply not true. Does it all work? Absolutely not, but it’s a huge swing from a director who still has the juice, and a clear sign that, as long as he continues to write his own movies, he’s got a very long, very successful career ahead of him.